Review of Madden 23 Patch #5

The new superstar Skills & X-Factors

The most recent Madden 23 update puts more of an emphasis on a few of the superstars' skills and X-factors than the previous one, which offered cosmetic enhancements to several players, notably Jaylen Waddle's famed touchdown celebration.

I wholeheartedly concur that Tua Tagovailoa merits superstar skills and the X-factor. MoneyOvaHuds wrote, "Giving Roquan superstar skills when he leaves the Bears, lol," and I can also agree with that. Since players always seemed to receive rating increases only after leaving my favourite football team, this fear may just be in my imagination. However, a lot of fans should be pleased with EA's effort to modernise superstar X-factors and talents.

Gameplay Upgrades

The Impressions of All-Madden

Madden 23 plays well following the patch, especially after finding the appropriate settings and sliders. Despite the fact that I've always been an "All-Madden" kind of guy, I occasionally found the game to be unrealistic. Examples of this include the offensive line's lacklustre performance in the trenches. Too frequently, blocks were entirely missed, leading to plays that changed the outcome of games. In addition, there were instances when defensive backs displayed superhuman abilities and made plays that put the game in danger. And perhaps I've been playing it incorrectly the entire time, which is why.

This opinion was held by one member. "M23 is an excellent game after fixes." I alter two coaching decisions for every game while using AM defaults (everything at 50). I play "conservative ball carrier" on offence and "strip ball conservative" on defense. These two easy adjustments essentially got rid of tackle fights and too many broken tackles. Those two problems were the main ones I faced when playing the game.

Even if All-Madden is the prefered option among other OS members, All-Pro is still an option for some.

The Impressions of All-Pro

The other member, in contrast to myself and the rest of the group, has already been playing on default All-Pro with ten minutes of quarters and is thoroughly enjoying the game. The greatest way to play Madden is undoubtedly in competitive mode, which is also rather certain.

"I'm now a hundred percent certain that playing Madden in competitive mode is how you play the game best. Good arcade mode. The play art, though, was a little excessive, and it's absurd that you can't toggle it. It's stupid, just like the momentum information on the screen. That graphic won't go away.

In Comp mode, I have a sample size of roughly six games with default AP, 10-minute quarters, and no accelerated clock. The only penalty I disabled was International Grounding. What I get is as follows:

1. The CPU is an absolute pro at playcalling. I'm constantly under attack, and it feels like they plan everything out. Allie-Cox, Pittman, Pierce, and Taylor were issues when I played for the Colts. This CPU is also quite aggressive. The CPU will undoubtedly have a four-play mindset if they are in "no man's land" on your side of this field. I cherished it because it reflected how I would behave.

2. Sanctions. Surprisingly, without adjusting any sliders, I have managed to get 1 DPI PER GAME. There's not much to say, except that it was strange on SIM. DPI and OPI's animation was present; it was just not being called. I'm sure I can generate more penalties if I play around with various sliders and perhaps some coaching schemes.

3. Animations are excellent since the CPU uses far more of its resources than the sim. It's been fun to observe the exchanges between the WR and defenders, and I've been enjoying the variety of actions taken against me.

I am now certain that my SIM idea is accurate in light of this. Undoubtedly, there is too much garbage in the gumbo. This code is not speaking fluently due to the countless player ratings that must be condensed, the unique player traits, and the slider riddles. They are in stark opposition to one another; thus, when SIM depends on accurate ratings, which ratings is it depending on? A confusing jumble is being created by the ratings, attributes, and other antiquated code. SIM is a disaster when you add fines and bullshit to it.

Practice for Madden Ultimate Team and Franchise Updates

Even though I'm not a die-hard Madden Ultimate Team lover, every time I sit on the floor and give it a try, I find myself wanting more. But the absence of practise mode was one of my greatest complaints during Madden 23's first quarter. The art of selecting the ideal lineup is a big part of the fun of roster creation. It's also good to finally have the opportunity to experiment with the many game genres and skill levels you can run into on your MUT trip.

In order to properly align linebacker & cornerback awards, EA also launched an update for the Franchise mode and added a few small changes for Face of a Franchise mode. This needed to be adjusted because the linebacker involved now has a FOTF happening. Regardless of offence or defence, I believe this can probably be tweaked much more for all positions.

Dev Note: Since the release of Title Update 4, we have been putting a lot of effort into enhancing Franchise Mode. Since then, we have resolved the 32-user online Franchise Bug as well as the Draft Revert Bug, two of the most pressing problems. Rest assured that we are not finished and are still working on additional adjustments for you.

To sum up

EA's Madden 23 is performing better than it has in a very long time as the NFL postseason draws near. Undoubtedly, we'd like to see more CFM updates, a completely revised Face of the Franchise (or perhaps its removal), as well as perhaps some further gameplay modifications. However, Madden is now performing really well in several circumstances. (With some recent changes to AP and how this will now spawn Inside Shades spam, the competitive environment appears to be a little of a mess.) It's the best we will get, at least until Patch #6, even though many people will still find things to criticise.